


Finding Home

by badgerterritory



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Post-DA2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 09:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1383271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerterritory/pseuds/badgerterritory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Kirkwall is destroyed, Merrill wanders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Home

It was a year after… after Kirkwall, after Hawke left with Isabela, months after everyone disbanded, that Merrill found her way to a Dalish clan. They denied her, as Merrill had feared they would. Lacking any better solution, she found the Grey Wardens, and Bethany, as a friend but not a recruit.

She was done with everything relating to the Blight.

With nothing better to do, she stayed with Bethany’s Warden group, offering her magical talents. In return, they protected her, even though she wasn’t a Warden. It wasn’t the best situation, but it was the best she was likely to get until she figured out what she wanted to do.

For months she accompanied Bethany and the Wardens, all across the Free Marches. The traveling didn’t bother her like it bothered some of the Wardens, since she was a Dalish, after all. Bethany was constantly restless, seeming like she was only comfortable on the road or in combat.

Merrill understood. Or she thought she understood. Sometimes she felt restless, too, when she thought about Hawke, or Kirkwall, or all of the frightening things that were happening. But where it was occasional for her, it was Bethany’s entirety.

They talked about Hawke sometimes. For two months there had been a hawk (and how Bethany had laughed at that!) who sought Merrill out wherever she was and gave her messages and brought messages back, but something had happened to it, or Hawke had forgotten about them.

Eventually, the Wardens were called to Ferelden to aid a Deep Roads expedition. Merrill remembered the tales of how Bethany’s last expedition went and followed willingly, if only to protect her. They met up with a group of Wardens in Amaranthine, who accepted Merrill’s presence without question. From there, they traveled south and met with a Dalish clan led by a powerful young woman.

Fortunately, the Keeper didn’t recognize Merrill. If she had, she surely wouldn’t have sent ten of their clan’s hunters with the Wardens.

From there they traveled west, and Merrill told her story to the hunters as truthfully as she could. They were distant after that, but still kind, and Merrill was grateful. They met with another group of Wardens, accompanied by the queen’s soldiers, and then traveled south-west to finally meet with the main expedition.

And there, Merrill saw someone she never expected to see again.

Standing proud in shining Grey Warden armor was Mahariel, the tip of her greatsword pressing into the ground as she leaned on it. She was barking out orders to the Wardens and the soldiers, but paused to greet one Warden, an elf, with a smile and a hug. It was Mahariel, in the flesh.

Merrill was unable to stop herself from approaching. She heard herself say, “Mahariel?”

Mahariel looked up and grinned widely. “Merrill?” Merrill found herself being hugged fiercely. “Oh, Maker, it’s good to see you, Merrill! How is the clan doing? I heard about what happened in Kirkwall, I’m glad you’re alright. Has the keeper defied the odds and gained immortality? Oh, we have to talk sometime! When we make camp in the Deep Roads, I’ll find you, I promise, I have to get going now. Velanna, can you stay with Merrill for a while? You can talk to each other about magic, and being a Keeper, and whatever else you wish.”

With that, Mahariel departed, tugging the sword out of the dirt and carrying it in both hands. Velanna said, “I heard about what happened to your clan, Merrill. I am… sorry. And I understand, somewhat.”

Merrill smiled, about to thank her for her kindness, when Velanna continued, “So I want you to understand when I say I don’t want you near the Warden-Commander. You’re dangerous, and she’s too sentimental to realize it. Wardens leave behind their old lives after the Joining. You’re part of her old life.”

With that, Velanna left her. Merrill held back her tears and found Bethany, who split away from her commander to comfort her.

* * *

They went into the Deep Roads, and Merrill stayed with the hunters. She was perfectly happy with watching Mahariel from afar, barking orders or slaying darkspawn with Velanna to one side and Nathaniel Howe on the other. It was nice, fighting alongside Bethany again. And the Wardens didn’t look twice if they saw her using blood magic, which she didn’t do too often anymore.

They traveled through five thaigs in total, and on the last day before they went to the surface, Mahariel found Merrill. “Velanna said I should stay away from you,” she said in a rush, “but Velanna’s a nug-licking sack of shit sometimes, as Oghren would say, and I missed you so much, Merrill. She told me. I’m so sorry about the Keeper.”

Merrill hugged her old friend. “Not as sorry as I am. I thought if I could fix the Eluvian somehow… but all it ever did was bring pain. Pain and suffering. First to you, then to me, then the clan…”

"Shh," Mahariel said, hugging Merrill close. "Hush, lethallan. It’s okay. Come with me."

Merrill followed Mahariel to the commander’s tent, where she was pushed into a sitting position. Mahariel sat behind her and began brushing out her hair. “You can stay with me,” she said, fingers running through Merrill’s hair as she brushed. “I’m your clan. You’re home with me, lethallan.”


End file.
